The present invention relates to a telephonic system and, more particularly, to such a telephonic system with adaptive call forwarding apparatus and methods.
Currently, conventional call forwarding apparatus in telephonic systems in which calls are forwarded from one telephonic station to another is known. As used herein, a telephonic station is defined as any telephone, computer or other device capable of receiving, transmitting, or processing telephonic signals in a telephonic system. Typically, activation of the call forwarding feature is established solely at the forwarding, or called, telephonic station by pressing specified keys of the telephone in a prescribed sequence. Activation includes the step of inputting the telephone number of the forwarded call receiving, or remote telephonic station to which the calls are to be forwarded. Once the call forwarding feature is active, such call forwarding is automatic. Calls to the called or forwarding telephonic station, by any and all qualified calling telephonic stations of any and all calling parties are automatically and reliably forwarded.
In addition to consistently and reliably forwarding all qualified incoming calls to the called telephonic station to the preselected forwarded call receiving station, in the prior art systems an attempt is made and achieved to effect this call forwarding in a seamless manner which is transparent to the calling party at the calling telephonic station. Delay caused by the forwarding is avoided and purposely no notification is given to the calling party that the call is being forwarded. Thus, in known systems, once call forwarding is activated, the call forwarding of all calls proceeds automatically without any choice or awareness by the calling party at the calling telephonic station.
Accordingly, there is a need for a telephonic system with an adaptive call forwarding apparatus and method to allow a choice for a calling party to selectively inhibit a call forward feature. In accordance with the telephonic system of the present invention, this need is met by provision of adaptive call forwarding apparatus and method for selectively forwarding to a selected remote telephonic station calls from a calling telephonic station and directed to a called telephonic station of the system dependent on information received from the calling telephonic station which is selectively sent by the calling telephonic station.
In the preferred embodiment call forwarding is inhibited in response to an inhibit signal manually selectively sent from the calling telephonic station. The calling station is provided with a special adaptive call forwarding available signal to indicate that call forwarding can be selectively inhibited by the caller. A preselected time delay period is provided, and if a forward inhibit signal is not manually entered within the preselected time delay period, a call from the calling telephonic station is automatically forwarded. If a forward enable signal is selectively sent by the calling station, the call is forwarded before the end of the time delay period.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, before selective call forwarding is made available to the calling party, the telephone number of the calling telephonic station is automatically compared to a list of stored telephone numbers, and if the number of the calling telephonic station matches a number on the list, the forwarding of a call from the calling telephonic station is automatically inhibited, and the selected call forwarding is bypassed.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention are made apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.